The present invention relates to core components for use in electrical machines and, more particularly, a stator core assembly for use in an electrical machine, most typically an electrical motor.
Electrical machines such as motors and generators have a stationary element, usually termed as stator, and movable or rotating elements, typically termed the rotor. The interaction between the stator and the rotor is caused by the interaction of a magnetic field generated by either the stator or the rotor. Such magnetic field is usually generated or induced by electric currents in a winding placed on either the stator or the rotor. Such winding usually comprises a plurality of coils wound about a winding support. The winding support is usually comprised of a soft magnetic material which traditionally is made of laminations of materials of selected steel materials. The laminations are insulated from each other in order to reduce eddy currents.
It has become known to replace the laminated steel components of stator or rotor cores with ferro-magnetic particles that are compacted in a powder metallurgy operation to form the winding support. The ferro-magnetic particles themselves are essentially electrically insulated from each other so that the resulting compacted product exhibits a low eddy current loss in a manner similar to the prior art use of a stack of steel laminations. Such use of compacted metal powders comprised of ferro-magnetic particles for cores in electrical machines is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,300,702 and 6,441,530.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved core component for use in electrical machines wherein the core comprises at least two core component sections, each formed of a compacted ferrous magnetic powder.